ChicagoDiscus and local flora and fauna :: PHOTO BOMB beware

[Dlprice45]

What amazing pictures. My two favorite things to do Garden and raise Discus! Beautiful garden and fish. Glad you had a great time.

[8ftbed]

Thanks all.
Lizzie has her thorns but overall is pure love juice. She'll hang out in the yard with me and just follow me around. perfect. Mr. Chubbs... He'll walk off needing to sniff and pee on anything taller than a dandelion.

Flowers, trees and discus have a lot in common for me. The colors, shapes and if you give them the basics in consistent quantities and patience, you're rewarded 10 fold. Not without a few ahshits and losses but nothing is perfect.

[CrazyAngels]

Thank you, awesome job showing us all some serious beauty.

[Dlprice45]

Yah Im going to paint my fish building and have flower beds around it. Looking forward to finishing it.

[8ftbed]

Thanks Jorge.

A separate fish house surrounded by a garden of the botanical flavor (which I get accused of but I was in a heavy collecting stage when I started would be tight. AND if I had the resources to build a legit fish house, then of course I'd be able to afford tanks outside to pump the tank water to and in turn, water the garden. All plants thrive on tank water, at least in my experience. Now that I'm doing big water changes on multiple tanks, I'm periodically filling 3 of those big blue water 5 gal water bottles I rescued from the curb and taking them out to the potted cannas and the 6 new roses.

In fact, if you like gardens, visit ChicagoDiscus. She's got that yard pimped out under big trees. I need to go back anyway and will get some landscape shots.

Well, I got 6 new buddies in for the MB's and Tefes. Super Red BN's. Actually bought 5 but he threw one in, in case of a DOA and also included some pellets and a piece of cholla wood which was cool. What I like even more is that the guy also warned me that he has soft acidic water and should drip acclimate. That was excellent on his part.
I had a drip line valve from 18 years ago and filled half of one of Josie's fish bags with the bn's and their small amount of original water by dripping in for 3 hours. Now they're floating in the tank for another 30 minutes and then they go free.



Hi Mom!

[DiscusPamela]

Can you please point me to the link that shows how to make these bottle filters? I'd love to try some.

Thanks

[8ftbed]

Can you please point me to the link that shows how to make these bottle filters? I'd love to try some.

Thanks

Hi Pamela, sorry I missed this. Here's the link to Josie's thread.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ear&highlight=

Here's another thread she started with q/a/pics from others.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...les&highlight=

I nor the clerk found suction cups in Home Depot. I went next door to Michael's and found in 3 sizes. I found some more in Walmart yesterday.

/blaine

[8ftbed]

Yesterday I made steps for Lizzie to get up on the couch (a little gimp in a hip and we ain't getting any younger), 4 more media bottles a la Josie and put together the diy pvc canister filter I'm trying (like so many before me ). Filled the canister with mostly K1 from Chicago Discus. A piece of polishing pad on the separator above the outtake and coarse filter pads and a polishing pad at the top between the intake and K1. The Quiet One 1200 should be in today or Tuesday I think and then I can plumb and test outside. If/when it works, it's intended purpose is biological filter on overstocked tank.



First bloom on one of my new Griffith Buck roses I added this spring.



Hen & Chicks are starting to send up some flower spikes. Such cool and alien looking flowers.



It's taken several years but the 3 varieties have finally filled in this little pie slice I left open when I put in the granite pavers I got from an old Chicago street. My first purchase from Craig's list and it was actually a sister in Dallas that told me of the CL and the listing up here in Oak Park.

[8ftbed]

The four Piworski Cobalts and two Blue Diamonds have been statuary or hiding since going into the 40g on 5/18. I'd been threatening changes and finally did it today. I moved the Blue Diamonds to the tank with Tefes and Marlboro Reds who've been constantly moving and hungry with full lighting. I also moved one of the pigeons to the that tank and the larger pigeon to the tank with the Piwos. The pigeons had been pretty good until the two little gold ones went away. The pigeons then decided sitting behind sponge filters was the new mood.

Blue Diamonds and Pigeon came right to life in the new tank. The Tefe/MReds had started jousting, so I figured going from 4 to 7 fish should help prevent one getting singled out for a beat down. I was kind of surprised at the weight of the Blues when I netted and bagged. It's really the first time I've seen them in light for over a month. Anytime I turned the light on in the original tank, all six piled up in a corner.











Mr. Chubbs was suddenly in my grill wanting to know what I was doing on the floor.

[blueluv]

Love your garden and discus, also can't forget mr chubbs. I think gazania flowers would make a good addition to your garden.

[8ftbed]

Gazania s are cool. I've killed a few. I got a couple to survive but never thrive in the places I tried. It'd be an annual up here anyway and I don't do annuals anymore. A few variegated pelargoniums. I do have annuals that self seed though, so it's like they're just more of my perennials. Larkspur, poppies, Bell of Ireland and some antique petunias which reliably reseed for me. That and the sunflowers which the gold finch scatter in the fall and I have 5-8 volunteers each year. Pretty cool.

[Falcon 900]

My wife is jealous of your flower beds and I'm jealous of you fish! Looks like I need to make another vist to see Josie and Miranda!

[8ftbed]

Shoot yeah! Take the missus with you, she can wander around yard. The snowball bushes were putting on a show last Sat and I see she's got some of the dark leafed cannas near the gate. Probably Wyoming.